


Some Grace

by catboypartypoison



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, The Academy Is...
Genre: Break Up, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Summer of Like, Warped Tour, Warped Tour 2005
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:46:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26455867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catboypartypoison/pseuds/catboypartypoison
Summary: It's time to exit with some grace/Now that you've given only what you know how to-Some Grace, Hop AlongA fic in which Pete and Mikey break up, and the brief aftermath of it. Ft. William and Mikey being friends because I like to write them.
Relationships: Mikey Way & William Beckett, Mikey Way/Pete Wentz
Kudos: 12





	Some Grace

**Author's Note:**

> Title and quote from the song Some Grace by Hop Along!!! The whole album it's off of is really good

_It's time to exit with some grace/Now that you've given only what you know how to_  
_-Some Grace, Hop Along_

\---

Pete followed Mikey to the bus lot. He didn't know what was up, but it didn't seem like it'd be anything good, going by Mikey's expression. Maybe he had a few guesses in mind, but he didn't want to think about them, even though it was August. August meant the tour was over soon.

They found a semi-shaded spot in the lot, hidden away from the heat of the setting sun. Pete looked at the horizon, blending into oranges and yellows and pinks, rather than at Mikey. As much as he didn't want to think of what Mikey was probably going to talk about, it wouldn't leave his mind.

"It's pretty out."

"Pete," Mikey sighed. He needed to get this over with, he hated it, but he knew. It was easier than trying to drag it on after the tour and be forced to watch their relationship, even their friendship, whatever could be salvaged, fizzle out from distance and work.

Pete looked at Mikey, but didn't turn to look at him straight on. He was… He was scared. And he hated that.

Mikey forced himself to scrounge up just a little more courage, though he didn't have much left, it already took so much just to drag Pete away from everyone to talk about it.

"Pete, I… We need… To break things up." He winced. He hated this, he hated this so fucking much. He hated _himself_ for having to do this, he felt like it was going to haunt him for the rest of his life.

It's for the better. It's for the better, he reminded himself.

Pete knew this was inevitable, so it shouldn't have hurt. It still did. He stayed silent. He didn't know what to say, because what do you say to that when you want everything except for things to end?

But Pete knew that their relationship would end with Warped, with the summer. He knew that. They were doomed from the start, as cliche as it was. He and Mikey both hated cliches, but they themselves were one. Forbidden, fucked up, doomed, young love. All cliches.

It wasn't forbidden because they were both guys – at least, it shouldn't be why, but a lot of people (assholes) thought so. Not that either of their bands minded, they'd done their bests to be supportive, while also thinking they both were stupid as hell.

He wished the summer could last until the end of time.

Was it even really love if it had a deadline of a few months? Pete was going to be fucked up by this for so long. He didn't care how fucking immature, fucking _cliche_ of him it was to cling onto a stupid "happily ever after" fantasy. He _loved_ Mikey.

They were facing each other directly now. And right now, Mikey, who Pete had been so sure was the love of his fucking life, was apologizing with these sad fucking puppy eyes that he wanted to hate so much.

"I'm sorry, I'm –"

"If you're sorry, then why are you doing this?"

"Because it won't fucking last!" Mikey snapped. Pete flinched, and Mikey mumbled yet another fucking apology. "It'd be long-distance, we have our own bands, fuck, we have our own _girlfriends,_ and you expect this to work out?"

Pete jammed the heels of his palms in his eyes. He wasn't going to cry, he's not a fucking child, and it'd be a dick move to cry anyways.

"I _want_ it to work," he choked out, sounding far closer to tears than he wanted to. He really, really did. There had to be a way to make it work. He'd gotten so far into his hopeless fucking fantasies that he'd almost started to imagine a real future with Mikey.

It was unrealistic, but he wanted it to be real.

"You can't always get what you want, Pete. We're adults, you know that," Mikey said, pulling Pete out of his racing thoughts of love and impossible futures.

Mikey had wanted to end this with far more grace, but he'd given up on it now. This had been the best summer of his life, but September was barely a week away and he didn't want either of them to come out of it all more hurt than they had to be. He didn't want to hurt Pete at all really, but if the end was impossible to avoid, so was hurting Pete. He had to go before he said anything else painful.

Pete opened his mouth to say something, but Mikey had turned to leave, presumably for the My Chem bus. He sighed.

It was over. _They_ were over.

\---

Mikey trod back to his bus, feeling even worse than he did before. He felt like throwing up. The bus was empty. He was alone, the rest of the band was still out with other bands, probably the rest of Fall Out Boy. He curled up in his bunk and pulled out his Sidekick. He needed a distraction. William was probably also out, and texting him was likely pointless. But _fuck_ , he needed a friend with him so bad right now.

Except as if Mikey had fucking manifested him, he got a notification from William.

_-u know where pete is?_  
_no, whts up?-_

It wasn't a lie, he didn't know. Not unless he was still standing there in the bus lot. Mikey didn't want to fucking talk about, _think_ about Pete right now though.

_-hvnt seen him since u 2 took off_  
_idk where he is now-_  
_-usually he tells u i thought_

Mikey groaned. That was true. He didn't think anyone had noticed, least of all William. They were friends, thanks to touring together and mutual friends all over the place, but not _that_ close, he didn't think.

_-did sth come up?_  
_its nothing.-_  
_-sthing did come up then_  
_dnt wanna talk abt it-_  
-i wont tell nyone  
-i cld bring booze and popsicles  
_fine-_

Of course the time he skipped on partying after the shows they had popsicles. Mikey dragged himself up and out of bed, texting William that he'd be outside of TAI's bus. It was closer to the stages than his.

When Mikey got to the Academy bus, William was outside waiting for him.

"I already put the stuff inside, c'mon." William pulled Mikey up the stairs and into the cool bus.

"You don't have to do this, you know," Mikey said as he and William sat together on the couch in the lounge of the bus, after getting the beer and popsicles out.

"Too bad, I'm worried about both you and Pete now." William handed him a full plastic cup and a purple popsicle.

"It's fine, we just… Broke up." Mikey sighed again, sipping his beer.

William looked at Mikey, surprised. "You were dating?"

Mikey glared at the ceiling. "I don't know? It doesn't even matter anymore, we're over."

"Why?" William asked, biting off the top of his popsicle.

"It wouldn't have lasted after the summer… We live too far apart, we're too busy, and trying to make it work would have been worse if it ended bad, I think."

William crunched his popsicle thoughtfully.

"Are you sure it wouldn't last? I don't wanna make you doubt yourself anymore than already, but… You didn't even want to try?"

"I didn't want to hurt Pete _more._ "

William sighed, giving Mikey this worried stare, before hugging him from the side.

"I… You know your relationships best, I guess."

Mikey nodded as he finished his popsicle, hugging back. "Can we not talk about it anymore?"

"Yeah." William tossed his and Mikey's wrappers in the trashbin. "Wanna go back out?"

"Sure." It was probably better for Mikey to not think about it right now, it hurt too much.

\---

Pete was sulking in his bunk. His phone was thrown across the room, because he'd almost, almost sent Mikey a text and he didn't want to do anything stupid when he'd already made the mistake of falling in love.

He didn't know what to _do._ Pete had spent the last couple months feeling like he and Mikey revolved around each other. And now that was gone. If he didn't want to party with everyone else, he and Mikey might've taken off in a taxi together. Or gone back to one of their buses and fucked. Or driven off and blasted Rancid the whole way.

It hadn't even been that long and he missed it _so much._

He couldn't force Mikey to stay with him though. He knew that, he was bitter about it but he knew that.

Pete kind of wanted the jackets Mikey stole from him back but he didn't think he'd be able to wear them anymore. Everything that could be tied back to Mikey hurt too much.

It wasn't made to last, he kept telling himself. It was just a summer fling. That was all they'd ever be.

Pete got up to get his phone off the floor, and thought of sending Mikey a text again. He almost wanted to say he loved him, just to make it hurt more on Mikey's end.

"No," he muttered to himself. Mikey didn't deserve that. He deleted Mikey's contact. Didn't block his number, didn't delete their messages. It'd hurt less if he burnt the bridge. Or at least Pete told himself that.

He sighed, and curled back up in his bunk.


End file.
